Director: Jon Hurwitz
Director: Hayden Schlossberg
Film: Harold and Kumar Escape From Guantánamo Bay
Studio: New Line Cinema
Cast: John Cho, Kal Penn, Rob Corddry, Roger Bart, Neil Patrick Harris
Website: http://whatwouldnphdo.com/
MPAA rating: R
Trailer: http://www.movieweb.com/video/V07L568aepCKOV
First date: 2008
US Release Date: 2008-04-25 (General release)
Image: http://images.popmatters.com/film_art/h/harold-and-kumar-poster.jpg
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List number: 10
Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay
Jon Hurwitz & Hayden Schlossberg
I’ll admit it: I saw the trailers for the first Harold and Kumar movie and thought, “Ugh, stupid. Pass.” But eventually I saw it on cable, and yeah, it was surprisingly funny. Still quite stupid, sure, but also really funny. Harold and Kumar Escape From Guantanamo Bay is, happily, more of the same. From the bottomless pool party to the surprisingly sophisticated rednecks to the return of the spectacular Neil Patrick Harris, the movie is packed with big laughs. It also plays with racial stereotypes to great effect, with Rob Corddry’s performance as the hopelessly racist Agent Fox possibly the dimmest portrayal of an FBI agent ever captured on film. Chris Conaton
Film: Repo: The Genetic Opera
Studio: Lionsgate
Cast: Alexa Vega, Anthony Head, Paul Sorvino, Paris Hilton, Bill Moseley, Sarah Brightman
Website: http://www.repo-opera.com/
MPAA rating: R
First date: 2008
US Release Date: 2008-11-07
Image: http://images.popmatters.com/blog_art/r/repogeneticoperaposter.jpg
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List number: 9
Repo! The Genetic Opera
Darren Lynn Bousman
One part high-concept art and one part camp, Repo!: The Genetic Opera, what’s not to love about a futuristic goth/rock/punk/industrial opera about repossessing people’s organs?!. Taking place in the not-so-distant future, an epidemic of organ failure and recreational plastic surgery prompts a biotech conglomerate, GeneCo, to capitalize on the situation. Run by the decadent Largo family with an army of Genetic Repo Men at their service, payment for parts is extracted either monetarily — or with the organs themselves. Accomplished Broadway performers Sarah Brightman and Paul Sorvino (whose voice and performance shine as the ruthless, bitter CEO of GeneCo) play alongside cult favorites Bill Moseley (The Devil’s Rejects), the vocally gifted Anthony Stewart Head (Buffy the Vampire Slayer) and Paris Hilton. The result is a uniquely musical mixture of drama, shock-horror, and comedy. Lana Cooper
Film: Sex and the City
Studio: New Line Cinema
Cast: Sarah Jessica Parker, Kim Cattrall, Kristin Davis, Cynthia Nixon, Chris Noth, David Eigenberg, Evan Handler, Jason Lewis, Jennifer Hudson
Website: http://www.sexandthecitymovie.com/
MPAA rating: R
First date: 2008
US Release Date: 2008-05-30 (General release)
UK Release Date: 2008-05-30 (General release)
Image: http://images.popmatters.com/film_art/s/sex-and-the-city-movie-poster.jpg
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List number: 8
Sex and the City: The Movie
Michael Patrick King
A Grade-A estro-fest, the big-screen version of Sex and the City picks up at the next logical step three years from where the HBO series left off. It detours slightly, condensing the four main characters to neatly packaged archetypes for the sake of the two-and-a-half hour long film, allowing both old fans and new converts to jump in. In that sense, it detours from the TV show, less of a paeon to single life as it is a borderline cautionary tale of the pitfalls of long-term relationships. It’s something of a sweet, yet cynical catharsis for women to commiserate with on-screen representation regarding the various stages of relationships. The guilty pleasure ante is upped thanks to the parade of couture flashed on screen with MTV-style, rapid-fire precision in every frame. Not without its cheese factor (including a clichéd, slow-mo phone drop at a pivotal moment in the film), at its core, the film incarnation of Sex and the City is as much about friendship as it is fashion. Lana Cooper
Film: High School Musical 3: Senior Year
Studio: Walt Disney Pictures
Cast: Zac Efron, Vanessa Hudgens, Ashley Tisdale, Lucas Grabeel, Corbin Bleu, Monique Coleman
Website: http://disney.go.com/disneypictures/highschoolmusical3/
MPAA rating: PG
First date: 2008
US Release Date: 2008-10-17
Image: http://images.popmatters.com/blog_art/h/hsm3poster.jpg
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List number: 7
High School Musical 3: Senior Year
Kenny Ortega
No worries here, Disney’s rabidly popular High School Musical franchise survives its transition from cable to the big screen with all of its “Up with People” élan quite intact, thank you very much. Sure, it basically just recycles the story from its first iteration; and sure, the peppy, relentlessly catchy songs only occasionally progress the plot or add any depth to the characters or themes (as you would expect, in a normal musical); and sure, it’s anachronistic and hammy and ludicrous to the point of tears. But goshdarnit, I can’t say I had a more flat out joyful and exciting film going experience all year than taking in HSM3 with my girlfriend (like myself, a rabid devotee) and a theater full of little kids, all of whom knew all the words, and a large contingent of whom were quite determined at belting out each song with manic brio and enthusiastic interpretive dance. Jake Meaney
Film: Doomsday
Cast: Rhona Mitra, Bob Hoskins, Malcom McDowell, David O’Hara
MPAA rating: R
First date: 2008
Distributor: Universal
Image: http://images.popmatters.com/film_art/d/doomsday.jpg
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List number: 6
DOOMSDAY
Neil Marshall
Following up The Descent, one of the scariest, most effective horror movies of the past decade, with a big dumb post-apocalyptic action movie is not an obvious move. But maybe writer/director Neil Marshall needed a break from all that intensity. Regardless of his motivation, DOOMSDAY (Yes, it’s supposed to be all capitals), is a rollicking action flick that never slows down. Shamelessly ripping off The Road Warrior and a half-dozen other movies, DOOMSDAY is the story of a superspy (Rhona Mitra) sent into desolate, long-quarantined Scotland to retrieve a possibly non-existent antidote to a virus now ravaging London. Along the way she meets cannibal punks, armored knights on horseback, and Malcolm McDowell in full scenery-chewing mode. Trust me, it’s awesome. Chris Conaton
Film: Never Back Down
Studio: Summit Entertainment
Cast: Sean Faris, Djimon Hounsou, Amber Heard, Cam Gigandet, Evan Peters, Leslie Hope
Website: http://www.neverbackdownthemovie.com/
MPAA rating: PG-13
Trailer: http://www.apple.com/trailers/independent/neverbackdown/trailer/
First date: 2008
US Release Date: 2008-03-14 (General release)
UK Release Date: 2008-04-04 (General release)
Image: http://images.popmatters.com/film_art/n/never-back-down-poster.jpg
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List number: 5
Never Back Down
Jeff Wadlow
Never Back Down is essentially The Karate Kid with mixed-martial arts and no conscience (or grasp of reality) whatsoever. The movie depicts a high school where everyone’s lives revolve around fighting, house parties are just a cover for mixed-gender brawls, and absolutely everything is captured on video and immediately uploaded onto YouTube. And it feels like almost half of the film’s (two hour!) running time is taken up by montages set to the cheapest jock rock the producers could find. Yet despite its adherence to formula, Never Back Down is enthralling in its lunacy: its depiction of teenage life is so ridiculous it borders on surreal, and its “use violence to solve your problems” moral goes from odious to hilarious by the time the hero’s mom is encouraging him to participate in unregulated street fights. Jack Rodgers
Film: The House Bunny
Studio: Columbia Pictures
Cast: Anna Faris, Emma Stone, Colin Hanks, Kat Dennings, Beverly D’Angelo, Katharine McPhee, Rumer Willis, Kendra Wilkinson, Kiely Williams
Website: http://www.thehousebunny.com/
MPAA rating: PG-13
First date: 2008
US Release Date: 2008-08-22 (General release)
UK Release Date: 2008-10-10 (General release)
Image: http://images.popmatters.com/film_art/h/house-bunny-poster.jpg
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List number: 4
The House Bunny
Fred Wolf
If you subscribe to the brilliance of the “smart-dumb” comedic stylings of the criminally underutilized and underappreciated Anna Faris (which I most certainly do), then The House Bunny was the one and only late summer comedy you had penciled in for 2008. A distaff version of Old School, with Faris playing a Playboy Bunny forced to find a new gig as a sorority house mother after eviction from the Mansion, the film is a showcase for the breezy off the cuff daffiness and impeccable comic timing that has become Faris’ bread and butter. Though ultimately disposable, and falling far short of capitalizing on its girl power message, I think I laughed more in the first half hour of The House Bunny than I did during the entirety of the summer’s much vaunted Tropic Thunder, and enjoyed Farris’ turn as Shelley the Bunny more than any other female performance I saw this year. Now, someone please, get this girl a better agent! Jake Meaney
Film: Step Brothers
Studio: Sony
Cast: Will Ferrell, John C. Reilly, Richard Jenkins, Mary Steenburgen, Adam Scott
Website: http://www.sonypictures.com/movies/stepbrothers/index.html
MPAA rating: R
First date: 2008
Distributor: Sony
US Release Date: 2008-07-25 (General release)
UK Release Date: 2008-08-29 (General release)
Image: http://images.popmatters.com/film_art/s/stepbrothersmp08.jpg
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List number: 3
Step Brothers
Adam McKay
The script for Adam McKay’s latest anarcho-comic circus was probably about five pages long, tops, and filled with notations like, “Will and John go off on each other,” and it shows. There’s roughly three seconds of plot in this patched-together piece about two unnaturally immature step brothers (Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly) forced to live together (they don’t like it, there’s your story). But the non-sequitur obscenities the two concoct in their hilariously frenetic free-association rants eventually reaches a fever pitch that leaves you gasping for air. Chris Barsanti
Film: Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
Studio: Paramount Pictures
Cast: Harrison Ford, Shia LaBeouf, Cate Blanchett, Karen Allen, Ray Winstone, John Hurt, Jim Broadbent, Ian McDiarmid
Website: http://www.indianajones.com/site/index.html
MPAA rating: PG-13
First date: 2008
US Release Date: 2008-05-22 (General release)
UK Release Date: 2008-05-22 (General release)
Image: http://images.popmatters.com/film_art/k/kingdomofthecrystalskull.jpg
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List number: 2
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
Steven Spielberg
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull has a lot working against it, it’s true. Just by coming 20 years after Last Crusade, it was facing an uphill battle. Then you have the scenes that go past simple ridiculousness into outright egregiousness. Yes, the refrigerator sequence and the greaser monkeys were unforgivably awful. But Steven Spielberg and Harrison Ford know what they’re doing, and they keep the movie fun despite George Lucas’s subpar story. And let’s not forget the unfairly maligned Shia LeBouf. Hated in many places on the internet for no apparent reason, he turns in another likable, solid performance as Mutt, and he and Ford play well against each other. It may be the weakest of the four, but Crystal Skull still captures a lot of what made Indy great in the first place. Chris Conaton
Film: Zack and Miri Make a Porno
Studio: The Weinstein Company
Cast: Seth Rogen, Elizabeth Banks, Craig Robinson, Jason Mewes, Katie Morgan, Traci Lords
Website: http://www.zackandmiri.com/
MPAA rating: R
First date: 2008
US Release Date: 2008-10-31 (General release)
UK Release Date: 2008-11-14 (General release)
Image: http://images.popmatters.com/film_art/z/zachmiripornposter.jpg
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List number: 1
Zack and Miri Make a Porno
Kevin Smith
Writer/director Kevin Smith delivers arguably his foulest and funniest flick yet with Zack and Miri Make a Porno. Two platonic pals, Zack and Miri, find themselves strapped for cash and decide to produce and amateur porn with their friends to makes some cash. Complicating matters is the worry of repercussions of on-camera sex taking a toll on their friendship. As Zack, Seth Rogen, a staple of Judd Apatow comedies, is a natural fit for Kevin Smith’s brand of likeable raunch alongside Smith’s long-time side man, Jason Mewes who pops up in a supporting role. The female cast members also carry the, ahem, load with Traci Lords lending authenticity and Banks as the reluctant starlet. Slightly controversial with advertising for the film edited or omitted in some markets across the nation, the film’s title belies a very real sort of romance — once you get past jokes about bodily fluids and fornicating with a flashlight. Lana Cooper
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